Payday Loans - Government petition please support!!!!!

saltnvinegar

Dear All

For anyone who has had experience of the payday loan industry this may be important. An e-petition is currently running, which if it gets 100,000 signatures will make this issue eligible for discussion in the house of commons.

Please offer your support and join us in signing the petition here:

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/20219

This petition condemns the Government for continuing to delay action on regulating the high-cost credit market and calls on them to introduce caps on the total cost of credit, so that British consumers get the same protection from payday lenders, home credit companies and hire purchase agreement providers as enjoyed by others across the world.

Given the evidence of growing numbers of UK consumers getting into debt as a result of these forms of credit we call upon the UK Parliament to act on this matter before Christmas in order to defend British consumers from the legal loan shark industry.

Best
SnV

orangesmartie

Signed....

saltnvinegar

orangesmartie wrote: »

Signed....

Thanks for your support!

2,304 signatures got, 97,696 to go...........

eyeopener2

Signed, lets do this

saltnvinegar

eyeopener2 wrote: »

Signed, lets do this

Hi Eyeopener!

Long time no see :wave:

Thanks for your support!! 100,000 is a big target but I'm sure we can do it! I'm going to bump this thread every day until we do!

Best
SnV

lesleyvhalifax

i have signed also:)

saltnvinegar

lesleyvhalifax wrote: »

i have signed also:)

Thanks for signing!

:beer:

FireWyrm

Question : what exactly are you proposing to replace PDLs with?

PDLs are nasty and I quite agree that they can be difficult yo extract yourself from, but loansharks they are not. The consumer has the perfect right NOT to use them and in some cases would be a damned sight better off if they exercised restraint, but take this away and what do you believe will happen? The sheeple go back to just hocking granny's ring..or will they turn to their local friendly REAL loanshark? PDLs are regulated, by consumer law. You can report them to OFT, they must still adhere to the same rules as every vendor etc. They wouldn't exist if there wasn't the demand. Perhaps your efforts would be better spent alerting the government to the reasons why people feel they NEED to use a PDL in the first place, namely, a sluggish job market, lack of opportunities outside of London, a housing Market which is still horribly overpriced and high expectations of material requirements for life.

Shut down the legitimate PDLs and the police won't have the resources to deal with the resulting additional crime that comes with a black market PDL industry. I can't think if a good alternative either, but I can pretty much guarantee the government won't listen to the petition anyway. If they can ignore the will of the people over something as serious as national sovereignty, then regulating PDLs is the least of their concerns.

saltnvinegar

FireWyrm wrote: »

Question : what exactly are you proposing to replace PDLs with?

I'm not proposing to replace them with anything, as I actually agree that they can have a place. What the petition is about is to start a debate on their practices and how they operate.

FireWyrm wrote: »

PDLs are regulated, by consumer law.

So they would have you believe, but the truth is they are not. The CCA 1974 (which they frequently 'use' as the basis for their contracts) was simply not built to handle the payday loan model.

Nor are many other consumer protection acts.

Example - If you took a normal loan 'online' under distance selling regulations you would have a right to cancel the agreement within 7 days.

How does the cooling off period apply to payday loans?

So if you wanted to apply the protection you should have under the distance selling regulations do you think a PDL company is going to let you return the money and not pay interest?!!

You can see its a sticky muddle which is why it needs debate, as the only other route is to challenge these things in court and how many people who take out payday loans do you think are going to do this?

FireWyrm wrote: »

You can report them to OFT, they must still adhere to the same rules as every vendor etc. They wouldn't exist if there wasn't the demand. Perhaps your efforts would be better spent alerting the government to the reasons why people feel they NEED to use a PDL in the first place, namely, a sluggish job market, lack of opportunities outside of London, a housing Market which is still horribly overpriced and high expectations of material requirements for life

Yes you can report them to the Office of Faffing and Twaddling, but since when has any creditor adhered to OFT guidelines when it doesn't suit them. Please point out to me a loan company that has lost its Consumer Credit License as a result of debt collection guidance breaches? At worst a couple have received a slap on the wrist.

Yes all these things contribute. You forgot to mention the other reason why these companies exist - that the 'traditional' lenders have shut up shop to almost all those that don't actual need loans. The same lenders that we, as taxpayers, bailed out a couple of years ago.

FireWyrm wrote: »

Shut down the legitimate PDLs and the police won't have the resources to deal with the resulting additional crime that comes with a black market PDL industry.

Where exactly does the petition state to shut them down? This is about capping the rates of interest and regulating their activities, or amending consumer law to offer people more protection against the business model.

FireWyrm wrote: »

I can't think if a good alternative either, but I can pretty much guarantee the government won't listen to the petition anyway. If they can ignore the will of the people over something as serious as national sovereignty, then regulating PDLs is the least of their concerns.

Well that is a different discussion! I know its idealistic, but if we don't make ourselves heard then we can never say they ignored us (among many other things :mad:)

lynneee

signed it!

FireWyrm

Thank you SaltNVinegar for the coherent response. I'll think over your points. However, I'm not convinced that there is a need to 'regulate' them as such. Since when as adults did we abdicate our responsibility for ourselves to the state? I've never used a PDL even though some on here have probably read some of my history that I have chosen to make public, there were times when I could have used the money, but ever since their inception, I've known it was a very stupid thing to do. My 7 year old figured it out the other night when watching an advert for Wonga...she said to me "that's silly mummy, if you didn't have the money this month, how will you have the money to pay it back next month?"...I kid you not, out of the mouths of babes. If my 7 year old has enough intelligence to spot the flaw, why not adults? I simply don't believe that adults do not understand what they are doing when they take on these loans, therefore, I must conclude that they di so knowingly. Before you point out that these people are 'desperate', I would counter that although having faced serious adversity myself, I never borrowed money when I was in a hole, it's just digging you deeper.

So, given that any adult of reasonable mental capacity must by definition be more knowledgeable than an average 7 year old, I must disagree with your choice of example. You are quite right, the DSRs don't fit the PDL model and you cannot return the money in 7 days, but seriously, why do you imagine that you NEED a 'cooling off' period in the first place? It wasn't like the PDL held you down and made you sign the agreement, they don't hide their APRs, they dint mislead you, this is a short term loan, payable on a certain day, in full. It's about as straight forward as it gets. Why do we need even MORE regulation?

Whatever happened to being responsible for ourselves?